Brexit Party supporters attempt to defend telling Sikh MEP to ‘f**k off and go home’

A Brexit Party supporter grins at the camera as others heckle Labour MEP Neena Gill during her acceptance speech. Picture: Twitter/supplied - Credit: Twitter/supplied

The Brexit Party has attempted to defend party supporters telling a Sikh MEP to ‘f**k off and go home’ at the West Midlands European election count.

Video footage on social media showed supporters of Farage’s party booing Labour MEP Neena Gill at the Birmingham ICC as she spoke following her election victory.

The pro-Remain MEP told local newspaper the Express and Star afterwards that it was “no surprise” that she had suffered abuse, and that her experience reflects the “anger that Brexit Party supporters show towards anyone who disagrees with their world view”.

But Brexit Party MEP Martin Daubney said that Gill had provided a “cynical misrepresentation of what happened”, and denied her version of the events, despite videos surfacing on social media.

He said the supporters had objected to being branded a “fascist regime” in her speech, which also described the party as a “destructive, disruptive force in British politics”.

Brexit Party supporters telling a British Asian MEP to 'go home' is the least surprising thing I've seen all week. Racists will always be racists, the real enablers are regular folk that choose to call these people 'bad' yet don't actually listen to POC.  pic.twitter.com/tpYeRncJF9
— Shahmir Sanni (@shahmiruk) May 27, 2019

Writing in the Daily Express, he claims: “Somebody (we don’t know who, there is no video evidence) cried out ‘go home – you lost!’

“Amazingly, Gill then twisted this into an attack on her as a British-Asian Sikh: that “go home” was in reference to her race, a disgusting fabrication.”

Another supporter, Vishal Khatri, told the Express and Star: “Neena’s poisonous rhetoric is not just designed to shame white people, but she uses it to bully and control the BAME community into toeng the line and voting Labour.

“But we are beginning to wake up to her dirty tricks. We can no longer be controlled in this divisive way.”

Thankyou2everyone tweeting in solidarity against the events at my acceptance speech, I really appreciate your support. @bbclaurak  just reported it as #BrexitParty  sppt'rs cocky enough2 'booh' a @UKLabour candidate. That's alright then- let's normalise #racism in our democracy
— Neena Gill MEP (@NeenaGmep) May 27, 2019

Gill previously defended the comparisons to a “fascist regime”.

She said: “Calling the Brexit Party out, for what it really is, does not mean I think that all those who voted for it are racists or fascists. But there is no question that they have certainly cornered that part of the democratic market.

“The Brextremists, if you will, will never stand up to austerity because it gives them the one thing they crave: grievance.

“At some point there must be a day of reckoning for this most destructive, disruptive force in British politics.”

I was there last night and was actually quite scared for her when she got off the stage. The Brexit party's presence and behaviour in the room made the atmosphere divisive and rather unpleasant!
— Peter Murden (@peter_murden) May 27, 2019